MyAdhan Blog

We’ve truely been amazed at the number of people who have been using our service Internationally and as a result we’ve had to change our country codes in our Prayer and Fasting times service.

We were initially using FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard) 2 letter country codes for identifying countries, however we had issues with requests from South Africa and Nigeria which meant we had to change to using the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) 2 letter country codes.

The changes are now live and we’ve also just included a helper function to still support requests using “UK” which are now converted to “GB”. Sorry for any trouble caused and we hope we don’t have to change anything again on the code.

As a side note, the service is actually clever enough to pick up your country from the International Dialing Code you’re SMS texting from, so you can do a search for a place name or post/zip code without a country code. There are a few exceptions like the United States (US) as the +1 code is also used by Canada (CA) and other countires in the Caribbean which would make it hard to search for the correct city in the correct country. There are also a few other countries that have clashes so we decided to make the country code something you have to state in your request in all the help and example messages.

With only 3 days in to Ramadhan and we’ve already increased our reach to countries we’d never expect to deliver services to. Just as a recap we now nolonger just deliver services to the United Kingdom but cover the world.

Here are some of the countries we’ve delivered Wallpapers, Hadiths, Quranic Tafsir, MP3 Adhan and Quran, Prayer and Fasting times to:

• Ghana
• Nigeria
• Kenya
• Tanzania
• Uganda
• Botswana
• Mozambique
• Swaziland
• Ireland
• Finland
• Germany
• Saudi Arabia
• India
• United Arab Emirates
• United Kingdom

We’re going to try to build a google map of all the places we’ve delivered messages to in the next week or so. Watch this space.

This is a quick note to say Ramadhan Mubarak and welcome to a new worldwide FREE service. MyAdhan is now available FREE from over +440 worldwide mobile operators.

We decided to enable our services usage over a UK Vodafone number +447786201102 which means anyone in the world can now use our services with only the charge for sending us a message, UK mobile phone owners should be able text us for FREE via text message tariff bundles. All International text messages are charged at an International rate. You should check with your moblie operator for sending rates.

The premium shortcode we currently use for the UK (60066) is still operational but will cease to run in a few months. we’ll keep you posted on things.

Have a great Ramadhan and spread the word about our FREE service.

MyAdhan.com has updated its TV advert to advertise its new FREE SMS services. The advert is currently playing on IslamChannel (Sky 813) and on Channel S (Sky 814). You can see the advert below on YouTube.

Now that MyAdhan.com is FREE* and available worldwide we need your help to make sure we can keep this service running. Please use the donate button on the right to send us whatever you can to keep our service FREE.

Remember we used to be a paid service just for the UK and now we delivery Wallpapers, Hadiths,
Quranic Tafsir, MP3 Adhan and Quran, Prayer and Fasting times worldwide 100% FREE*.

* MyAdhan mobile download services are now available FREE from over +440 worldwide mobile operators.

* The MyAdhan request number is a +447 UK mobile number (Vodafone), so UK mobile phone owners can text us for FREE via text message tariff bundles. All International text messages are charged at an International rate. Please check with your moblie operator for sending rates.

* ALL responses from MyAdhan.com are sent for FREE. You may be charged by your operator if you use the Internet from your phone. Please check with your moblie operator about Data/Internet usage rates.

Most Muslims who fast Ramadhan focus on the benefits and rewards of it. But in doing so, we often make mistakes that instead of adding to our experience actually detract from it. Mistakes that can make us commercialise Ramadhan as so many other religions have commercialised their sacred days. Insh’Allah the following serves as a reminder to all Muslims. May Allah help us to spend our time wisely this Ramadhan and help us to avoid these mistakes. Ameen

1. Taking Ramadhan as a ritual
For many of us Ramadhan has lost its spirituality and has become more of a ritual than a form of Ibaadah. We fast from morning to night like a zombie just because everyone around us is fasting too. We forget that its a time to purify our hearts and our souls from all evil….we forget to make dua, forget to beseech Allaah to forgive us and ask Him to save us from the Fire. Sure we stay away from food and drink but that’s about all.

Although the Prophet (Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa Sallam) said:
‘Jibreel said to me, ‘May Allaah rub his nose in the dust, that person to who Ramadhan comes and his sins are not forgiven,’ and I said, ‘Ameen’. Then he said, ‘May Allaah rub his nose in the dust, that person who lives to see=2 0his parents grow old, one or both of them, but he does not enter Paradise (by not serving them) and I said, ‘Ameen’. Then he said, ‘May Allaah rub his nose in the dust, that person in whose presence you are mentioned and he does not send blessings upon you,’ and I said, ‘Ameen.” (Tirmidhi, Ahmad, others. Saheeh by al-Albaani)

2. Too much stress on food and drink
For some people, the entire month of Ramadhan revolves around food. They spend the ENTIRE day planning, cooking, shopping and thinking about only food, instead of concentrating on Salaah, Quraan and other acts of worship. All they can think of is FOOD. So much so that they turn the month of ‘fasting’ into the month of ‘feasting’. Come Iftaar time, their table is a sight to see, with the multitudes and varieties of food, sweets and drinks.. They are missing the very purpose of fasting, and thus, increase in their greed and desires instead of learning to control them. It is also a kind of waste & extravagance.

‘…..and eat and drink but waste not by extravagance, certainly He (Allaah) likes not Al-Musrifoon (those who waste by extravagance) ‘ [al-Araaf :31]

3. Spending all day cooking
Some of the sisters (either by their own choice or forced by their husbands) are cooking ALL day and ALL night, so that by the end of the day, they are too tired to even pray Ishaa, let alone pray Taraweeh or Tahajjud or even read Quraan. This is the month of mercy and forgiveness. So turn off that stove and turn on your Imaan!

4. Eating too much
Some people stuff themselves at Suhoor until they are ready to burst, because they think this is the way to not feel hungry during the day and some people eat at Iftaar, like there is no tomorrow, trying to ‘make up for the food missed.’ However, this is completely against the Sunnah. Moderation is the key to everything.

The Prophet (Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa Sallam) said: ‘The son of Adam does not fill any vessel worse than his stomach; for the son of Adam a few mouthfuls are sufficient to keep his back straight. If you must fill it, then one-third for food, one-third for drink and one-third for air.’ (Tirmidhi, Ibn Maajah. saheeh by al-Albaani).

Too much food distracts a person from many deeds of obedience=2 0and worship, makes him lazy and also makes the heart heedless.
It was said to Imam Ahmad: Does a man find any softness and humility in his heart when he is full? He said, I do not think so.

5. Sleeping all day
Some people spend their entire day (or a major part of it) ‘sleeping away their fast’. Is this what is really required of us during this noble month? These people also are missing the purpose of fasting and are slaves to their desires of comfort and ease. They cannot ‘bear’ to be awake and face a little hunger or exert a little self-control. For a fasting person to spend most of the day asleep is nothing but, negligence on his part.

6. Wasting time
The month of Ramadhan is a precious, precious time, so much so that Allaah calls this month ‘Ayyamum Ma’doodaat’ (A fixed number of days). Before we know it, this month of mercy and forgiveness will be over. We should try and spend every moment possible in the worship of Allaah so that we can make the most of this blessing. However, there are some of us who waste away their day playing video games, or worse still, watching TV, movies or even listening to music. Subha an Allaah! Trying to obey Allaah by DISOBEYING him!

7. Fasting but not giving up evil
Some of us fast but do not give up lying, cursing, fighting, backbiting, etc. and some of us fast but do not give up cheating, stealing, dealing in haraam, buying lotto tickets, selling alcohol, fornication, etc. and all kinds of impermissible things without realizing that the purpose of fasting is to not stay away from food and drink; rather the aim behind it is to fear Allaah.

‘O you who believe! Fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may become Al-Muttaqoon (the pious)’ [al-Baqarah 2:183]

The Prophet (Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa Sallam) said: ‘Whoever does not give up false speech and acting upon it, and ignorance, Allaah has no need of him giving up his food and drink.’ (Bukhaari)

8. Skipping Suhoor (sehri)

The Prophet (Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa Sallam) said: ‘Eat suhoor for in suhoor there is blessing.’(Bukhaari, Muslim). And he (Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa Sallam) said: ‘The thing that differentiates between our fasting and the fasting of the People of the Book is eating suhoor.’ (Muslim)

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